Easter getaway...

Apparently everyone in Australia goes on Holiday Easter weekend because we tried and tried to find a place to stay that weekend and everything was booked.  We had planned to go away with our friends, the Prepchuk's, and luckily they found a great beach condo on One Mile beach, just 2.5 hours north of our house. 

We took off on Friday early in the morning to avoid the holiday weekend traffic.  We checked into a place and got swim suited up and headed to Stockton Beach.  We had gone to this particular beach and stayed a few days in the area when my parents were here visiting last year and we really loved it.

It is fall here, so the water is a little nippy, but not too bad...(I think...I actually didn't go running in..I like it to be sweltering hot outside when I enter the ocean.)  Of course the kids had a great time, they always do.

This particular beach has huge sand dunes (I don't know if ya'll remember my post from a year ago when we took some sweet pics jumping off the dunes.  I wanted to get a family pic of us jumping off the dune.  I about gave Jared a heart attack when I jumped...I can see why, I probably shouldn't be jumping and face planting at 8 months preg.)  :)

You can go on toboggan rides down the sand hills, camel rides and drive on the beach. Pretty cool!

Jared went out for some body boarding...I think he looks so handsome making his way into shore.

Lucy loves her bucket and sand time.

All the kids....what a cute group!

Liv took a graceful dive down the hill.

All along the beach were mangled pieces of jellies.  Occasionally you would see a whole jelly, but mainly just remnants of them.  All the kids loved poking at them and investigating, but Rex just got right down to business and picked them up.  Poor little Lucy felt sorry for them.  We had walked over to a sea shell graveyard to collect shells and on the way back it took awhile because Lucy had to bury every piece of jelly she saw.  Pretty tender if you ask me.

Just before the sun set we all piled in one car and drove and drove and seriously drove along the beach.  We were looking for this ship wreck.  Don't get me wrong, I was excited about seeing it, but at one point after getting stuck and driving for ages, I told Jared that someone needed to call the time if death...I wasn't sure it really existed.  Jared had read about it, but we didn't know how far down the beach it was.  We finally found it and it was pretty cool looking.  The drive back was beautiful with the sun setting on the ocean.

We were in a small town so they didn't really have any fast food but we did find this good fish n chip/burger joint.  We loaded up on some chips and fish cocktails.

This is Lucy's friend Lena.  Lucy often times puts her shoes on at home and stands by the door and yells, "Mommy, are you ready?"  Me, "Ready for what, sweetie?"  Lucy, "to go to Lena's."  She would invite herself to Lena's house everyday if she could.  They play so well together, but when it comes time to depart from each other there are always tears.

Early Saturday morning everyone but the mums got into the pool at the place we stayed.  It was as cold as it looks.  The kids shivered their way around and hopped out for a few minutes to get feeling back in their limbs,and then they would hop back in.

I was nice and warm on the side lines.

Later that afternoon we decided it would be fun to go on a dolphin watching cruise.  I had envisioned a nice boat ride out on the ocean and the kids loving the dolphins.  Ummm, well it would have been that way of there weren't ten billion people on the boat.  The kids got to see the dolphins for about 3 seconds only because I had to not care what people thought and barge my way through the people that wouldn't budge to let anyone else see anything.  Sounds harsh, but it was pretty irritating.  You would think adults would be thoughtful and let the kids half their size have a turn to see the dolphins.  I am over it..I promise. :)

The crew waiting for departure.  It was a beautiful day.

Me and my Lucy Jean.

For about 20 minutes they put down a net on the back of the boat and the kids could go down a water slide into the net & the boat pulled them along slowly in the water..  Yeah, I may have had a little anxiety thinking of their little limbs hanging out in a net for any sea creature to nibble on.  They actually really loved it.

Ah hah, we did see some dolphins.  I was able to snap this shot after using my belly to push my way through the crowds. :)

We got home and the kids enjoyed some snacks and a movie while the parents played a card game.

The next morning was Easter Sunday.  You are probably wondering what is on the plate.  We tried to make easter egg looking pancakes in an assortment of colors.

The Easter Bunny hid heaps of chocolate eggs and goodies around the condo. I am allergic to bunnies and Alivia asked if I got all itchy when the Easter bunny dropped off the bag of eggs.  :) cute!

It was a race up the stairs!

Everyone found plenty of eggs and then spend the next half hour stuffing their faces with chocolate.

Because we are on a completely different time zone here we actually didn't have General Conference   weekend with Easter.  We had to wait for a rebroadcasted Conference the following Sunday.  So we found an LDS church about 40 minutes from where we were staying.  It was in a small, quaint town in a small building.  The Salt Ash branch.  We walked in and I think we gave the members a surprise.  The branch was tiny and the people were so nice and so welcoming.  The Primary President asked me if the kids would be staying for Primary.  Unfortunalty we could only stay for Sacrament meeting, but I asked her how many Primary children they had in the branch. Two!!    We were invited by almost everyone in the branch to move into the area.  It was really neat to be there.  I am glad we went.  It reminded me a lot of a branch in Bergamo, Italy that I served in on my mission. 

After church we drove about an hour to a place called Hawk's Nest.  We had a picnic and took a nice walk to this beach (pic above)  The sand was white and beautiful and we even saw a bunch of dolphins right near the water...and we didn't have to push and shove each other.  I really am over it!  :)

I am sorry, but I had to include this pic of Lucy!  She was having a jolly old time playing in the sand with her cute little crack peeking out.

The Prepchuk's stayed Sunday night but we Finches had to drive home that night because Jared had to catch a flight in the morning to India.  The trip was great fun and we hope the Prepchuk's want to do it again because we are planning on it!! :)